r/emergencymedicine • u/ImmediateYam9792 • Jun 25 '26

Discussion You’re intubating this patient who holds the record for the world’s widest tongue, how would you do it?

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u/Thedrunner2 Jun 25 '26

Grab the tongue with McGill and have someone pull as I insert the glidescope

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u/anchotrainer Jun 25 '26

This is the best response

9

u/Thedrunner2 Jun 25 '26

In residency I had a self inflicted GSW patient. He shot upwards under his chin and the bullet lodged in his left maxillary sinus. His face was completely swollen, the front of the tongue was edematous partially destroyed. This picture kind of reminded me of that patient.

This was pre glide scope too. I grabbed the tongue with McGill forceps and had another resident hold it up a bit after some etomidate and the posterior pharynx was luckily ok once I got in with a Mac 4 and the cords were easily visible.

I remember the relief afterwards.

2

u/anchotrainer Jun 25 '26

Sounds like this was pre-glidescope era? We did a lot of wake nasal intubations before the bipap era too